


receipts

by hedgebitch



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: (with season one), Canon Compliant, Gen, Loneliness, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedgebitch/pseuds/hedgebitch
Summary: GCPD hands over files meant for the Robin that Jason will never manage to live up to, and he knows exactly what he has to do.orContrary to popular belief, Jason continues to exist, even when Bruce and Dick don't need him to. Especially then.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Comments: 13
Kudos: 142





	receipts

**Author's Note:**

> this was written before season 2 aired and can i just say i feel Vindicated in my analysis of jason’s attitude as a direct result of him feeling intensely insecure about everything in his life. anyways this was going to be a chaptered, text-based exploration of how jason has to literally get murdered to make any actual friends but that got. just Too Depressing with season 2 jason so. here ya go

Bruce doesn’t want him going out west. He doesn’t say it, the old man would never be so transparent, but Jason can tell. He gets the same kind of shifty look in his eyes he’d had when Alfie’d asked about transferring some money over to Dick, a little while ago. Still, it’s the logical solution—or at least, that’s what Jason frames it as, when he makes the suggestion that he take the GCPD files out to Dick’s last known location.

The thing is, though. They could totally send the files digitally. Dick’s still using bat tech, hasn’t bothered attempting to sever any electronic connections. Except—except, Jason kind of wants to meet the guy. 

Alfie corners him (as much as Alfred would ever corner anyone) right before he leaves to warn him. Tells him “Don’t get your hopes up,” or, well, the butler-y equivalent of that.

Jason doesn’t bother telling Alfred he hasn’t hoped for a thing since he found his mother dead in the bathtub. Instead, he struggles to find a way to explain himself without sounding stupid as all hell, and ultimately fails. 

“I guess I kinda thought,” he ends up telling Alfie. “When I like, came to live here, and all, I guess I thought I’d see him around, or something.”

Jason knows he’s not really Bruce’s kid, not—not the way Dick is, but. When he realized Dick must have been Robin before…it just. It had just seemed like maybe, for once, he was going to have someone in his corner who could understand. But Dick hasn’t bothered to show his face in Gotham, which means if Jason’s ever gonna get to meet the guy who’s sort of his brother or whatever—well, Chicago, it is.

_ I don’t think he likes me very much _ , Jason shoots off in a text to Alfred, waiting for Dick to decide what to do about him. There’s only a couple other conversations open on his phone—a message he sent Diana a month ago, after he’d finished the book she’d recommended to him, and then Bruce.

Typed but unsent, in his conversation with Bruce, is a message reading “I didn’t know he didn’t know.”

(Bruce has been on him to apply to Gotham University, or at least start taking classes at Gotham City Community College, but it’s pretty clearly not an option. Classes at GU or GC-cubed alike will mean homework, which will mean less time as Robin, and then Bruce will realize his mistake, that Jason isn’t smart enough to be Robin  _ and _ Jason, and kick him out, and then, after that, well, it’s not like Jason can afford his own enrollment fees just by boosting tires.)

Alfie isn’t much of a texter, so Jason isn’t too worried at the lack of a reply, even once they get to the safehouse and nothing’s come in yet. It’s just. For all the gossip about a chatty Robin and a chattier child, Dick sure isn’t keen on talking to Jason, and Jason’s starting to consider exactly how stupid his plan to come out to Chicago was more and more with every joke that falls flat.

If he texts Bruce, he could probably get a response real fast, but it’d be equal parts irritated and “I told you so” sounding. It’d be nice to have Alfred in his corner, is all.

When Dick’s friends show up at the safehouse, Jason figures out pretty quickly what he was missing about the dynamics of the situation.

Jason might have wanted to meet Dick. But Dick doesn’t need a little brother. Position filled, no vacancies, and he sends Jason back to Gotham once the mission’s over just to prove it.

Sucks to suck, though, ‘cause Jason’s never been great at doing what people want, and now he’s back in Gotham with Dick’s phone number and excessive free time as a result of Bruce pulling up a couple choice Chicago police reports and giving Jason a disappointed look to rival Alfred’s.

Dick doesn’t actually, like, respond to 90% of the messages Jason sends, but neither do gargoyles or Dostoyevski, so—he keeps sending them anyways. 

_ did b fuck when you first moved in _ his latest message to Dick reads. The read receipt—turned on by Dick a week ago, probably in the hopes that Jason would see his messages getting ignored and stop sending more—turns to “read” just as Jason’s checking it, so he shoots off a follow up.

_ cuz alfie keeps talking about some1 named selena (selina? celene?) whos coming 4 dinner 2morrow _

It catches Dick off guard apparently, because he actually starts to type a response. The typing bubble disappears a few seconds later, of course, but it’s nice to know he at least accidentally considered replying.

Continuing to catch Dick off guard seems like as solid a strategy as any, so Jason quickly shoots off another message, with his only goal being to antagonize as much and as quickly as humanly possible.

_ and like not 2 b rude but was def getting some [eggplant emoji][eggplant emoji] vibes from him _

The typing bubble pops up at the same time as the read receipt. Score one for blatant antagonism.

_ You should work on your “vibe” skills. Ask BG about Catwoman. _

Jason runs through batfacts in his head, trying to place “BG” before realizing it’s probably Batgirl. (Batgirl, who Jason has met exactly once, and whose file is blocked from him on the batcomputer, and who took one look at Jason in the Robin suit and turned on her heel, saying “Oh, fuck you, Bruce.”)

_ i dont exactly have her number. wanna hook me up? [winking face emoji] _ he opts to send.

Dick, predictably, does not respond.

**Author's Note:**

> happy new year & thanks for letting me get this out of my system! hmu on tumblr @[nightflings](https://nightflings.tumblr.com/) if you, like me, have seen both seasons of titans at least three times and still can't figure out the timeline

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I've Read All of the Books Beside Your Bed](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22367593) by [screaminginternally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/screaminginternally/pseuds/screaminginternally)




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